Appendix F: Experiential Training Clinic (ETC)

A Practical Step Towards Becoming a Counselor:

The PSU Experiential Training Clinic (ETC) / Group Practicum

There is broad consensus in the counseling field about the importance of professional counselors being clinically knowledgeable, ethical, and technically competent, as well as self-aware and interpersonally skilled, regardless of specialty or theoretical orientation. The PSU Clinical Mental Health Counseling Clinic now offers an affordable way to foster the aforementioned qualities and to fulfill part of the personal counseling requirement.

The Experiential Training Clinic (ETC) is designed to facilitate self-awareness and interpersonal skill building during the first year of graduate training. In a supportive, safe, and respectful closed group environment, the ETC provides an opportunity for peer-based experiential learning, recognition of the centrality and humanness of the counselor, and a forum for student community building. The ETC was proposed by students and unanimously approved by faculty and is modeled on the concept of training groups as a core component of counselor growth. Starting in Fall term of 2004 the ETC program requirement was combined with the COUN 509 Practicum: Group 1-credit course requirement for a combined 20-hour group experience over the course of an academic quarter. Ten (10) hours of this experience can be used to meet the 20-hour personal counseling requirement.

The ETC/Group Practicum is offered Fall, Winter, and Spring terms, with groups of 8-10 first-year students. Along with offering an experience that is tailor-made for the training needs of counseling students, the ETC offers a lower fee than the equivalent fee-for-service in the community.

The ETC begins the first week of classes during the term of which it is taken and continues weekly for the entirety of an academic term, to be no less than 10 weeks. ETC is listed in Banweb as COUN 509: Group Practicum. The ETC/Group Practicum will be offered at two different time slots per term, each with room for up to 10 students. The time slots are set in advance each term and are available during the ETC application process.

Qualified Group Leaders will facilitate the groups. Dr. Rick Johnson is the clinical supervisor of the ETC/Group Practicum experience with the administrative support of the Department Chair.

Nothing that occurs or is divulged in the context of the ETC/Group Practicum will be used in any way to affect student standing, grades, or participation in the counselor education graduate program. The ETC/Group Practicum experience is a non-judgmental, safe, supportive space in which to develop self-awareness and interpersonal skills as a counselor. Individual students who would like more in-depth personal counseling will be encouraged to seek counseling outside of ETC, either concurrently with or as a follow-up to the ETC.